US commercial crude oil inventories declined by 1.6% during the week ending Dec. 22, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories decreased by around 6.9 million barrels to 436.6 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a rise of around 1.8 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 800,000 barrels to 353.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories fell by around 600,000 barrels to 226.1 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 7,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.73 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 22.
US crude oil imports fell by 415,000 bpd to about 6.27 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports declined by 206,000 bpd to approximately 3.91 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Dec. 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.90 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.11 million bpd.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr